Section 1: Europeans Set Sail

Skilled Viking Sailors

• The Vikings were the first Europeans to make contact with North America. They came from Scandinavia.

  • Scandinavia: a peninsula that includes the present day countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

• The Vikings developed a new style of ship called the longship.

  • A longship: is a ship that is curved up at both ends

• Vikings raided many countries in Europe but also developed large trading networks.

• Leif Erickson was the son of Erik the Red was sailing from west Norway to Greenland, but due to strong winds, his ship arrived on the North American coast.

• Due to threats by Native Americans, the Vikings soon left. However, a growing interest of discovery and exploration spread throughout Europe.

Prince Henry the Navigator

• Portugal became a leader in world exploration. Prince Henry the Navigator was responsible for advances that would make exploration more successful.

Riches in Asia

• Europeans have several reasons to explore the world during the 1400s:

  • They wanted Asian spices. They hoped to bypass other merchants and find a direct route in order for countries to by spices and other items directly.

  • Secondly, religion played a role. Christians wanted others to join their faith.

  • Third, many Europeans had become interested in Asian cultures. Europeans wanted to learn about Asian culture and experience them.

Technological Advances

• New technology played a major role in advancing world exploration:

  • Astrolabe: a device that enabled navigators to learn their ship’s location by charting the position of stars.

  • Caravels: were ships made by the Portuguese which used triangular sails that, unlike traditional square sails, allowed ships to sail against the wind.

Rounding Africa

• Portuguese explores began to set out to find new lands in the early 1400s.

  • Bartolomeu Dias: led an expedition from Portugal southward along the African Coast.

    • A storm blew his ship around the southern tip of Africa. This point was known as Cape of Good Hope.

  • Vasco da Gama: left Lisbon, Portugal and arrived in southwester India.

• Portugal had one the European race for a sea route to Asia.

Results of Exploration

• Portugal’s exploration led to the start of the Atlantic Slave trade. The slave trade devastated African communities. Other European nations soon launched their own exploration to find their own water routes to Asia.

Section 2: Europeans Reach the Americas

Christopher Columbus Sails across the Atlantic

The Journey Begins

• Columbus asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to pay for his expedition across the Atlantic. He promised great riches, new land, and Catholic converts. The King and Queen agreed to fund him.

• On August 3, 1492, Columbus sails on his three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. They soon sailed into uncharted territory. They soon spotted land. Columbus thought he found a new route to Asia, instead they landed in San Salvador.

  • San Salvador: means “holy Savior”

• Columbus and his men interacted with the Taino Indian tribe. The Taino were generous and gave many resourced to Columbus and his men. Columbus returned 3 more times before he passed.

Impact of Columbus’ Voyages

• Columbus’ Voyages changed the way Europeans looked at the world.

• It also brought conflict. Both Portugal and Spain wanted to add these new lands to their empire. To deal with this issue the Line of Demarcation and Treaty of Tordesillas was signed.

  • Line of Demarcation: an imaginary line divided the Atlantic Ocean. Spain could claim all the land west of the line.

    • Portugal thought this gave too much land to Spain. Because of this, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed.

  • Treaty of Tordesillas: moved the Line of Demarcation 800 miles further west.

Other Explorers Sail to the Americas

• Amerigo Vespucci led a Spanish fleet to the coast of present day South America. He believed that the land was not Asia but rather a “new world.”

• A German map maker labeled the continents across the ocean America in honor of Vespucci.

• Vasco Nunez de Balboa led a expedition to find another ocean father west. He and his men found the western ocean: the Pacific Ocean

• Ferdinand Megella was a Portuguese navigator who set out to sail down the east coast of South America. He was killed in the Philippines, but his crew finished the expedition and became the first people to circumnavigate.

  • Circumnavigate: to travel or go all the way around the globe.

• European explorers took resources to the Americas and brought back resources to Europe, Asia, and Africa. This transfer became as the Columbian Exchange.

  • Columbian Exchange: the transfer of goods from the Americas and Europe; the transfer started with Columbus’ explorations.

• Europeans also brought diseases to Native Americans. As part of the trade, Europeans shipped millions of enslaved Africans to work in the colonies in the New World.

Section 3: Spain Builds an Empire

• The Spanish sent conquistadors to the Americas.

  • Conquistadors: soldiers who led military expeditions in the Americas.

• Conquistador Hernan Cortes left Cuba to sail to present-day Mexico in 1519.

Conquest of the Aztec Empire

• Spaniards were impressed by the buildings of the Aztecs. They saw the Aztec empire as a good source of gold and silver. They also wanted to convert them to Christianity. Hernan Cortes led the charge against the Aztecs. Small Pox and other diseases brought by the Spanish quickened the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Conquest of the Inca Empire

• Fransico Pizzaro, another conquistador, conquered the Inca Empire. Though outnumbered, Pizarro’s troops capture the Inca capital and killed the Inca leaders.

• More than 3 quarters of the Aztecs and Incas were killed by the diseases that the Europeans brought.

Spanish Settlements

• Spain’s government wanted to control migration to the Americas. The Spanish began to settle their vast empire which was known as New Spain.

• Spain ruled its large American empire through a system of royal officials.

• The Spanish established three kinds of settlements in New Spain:

  • Pueblos: served as trading posts and sometimes as centers of government.

  • Priests: started missions where they converted local Native Americans to Catholicism.

  • Presidios: military bases build by the Spanish to protect towns and missions.

Exploring the Borderlands of New Spain

Exploring the Southeast

• Juan Ponce de Leon: discovered the coast of present-day Florida in 1512.

• Hernando de Soto: discovered the Mississippi River in 1541.

Exploring the Southwest

• Alvar Nunex Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer who ship wrecked on what is now Galveston Island in Texas. He eventually returned to Spain where he called for better treatment of Native Americans.

• De Vaca’s account inspired other explorers to travel to North America.

• Francisco Vasquez de Coronado: found the Grand Canyon.

Spanish Treatments of Native Americans

• By 1650, the Spanish empire in the Americas had grown to some 3 to 4 million people. Native Americans made up 80% of the population.

  • Peninsulares: settlers who came from Spain; usually held the highest government position.

• To reward settlers for their service to the crown, Spain established the encomienda system.

  • Encomienda System: it gave the settlers the right to tax local Native Americans or to make them work. In exchange, these settlers were supposed to protect the Native Americans and convert them to Christianity.

• Many Spanish operated plantations: large farms that grew just one kind of crop. Plantations throughout the Caribbean colonies made huge profits for their owners.

The Role of the Catholic Church

• The Spanish king commanded the priests to convert the local people to the Christian faith.

• A priest named Bartolome de Las Casas said that the Spanish should convert the natives to the Christian faith by showing love, kindness, and gentleness. The Spanish monarchs agreed but did not always follow their laws.

Section 4: The Race for Empires

Events in Europe

• Many significant events took place in Europe in the 1500s:

  • There were disagreements about religion that threw Europe into turmoil.

  • At the same time, several European nations began to compete for land and power overseas.

• Martin Luther, a German priest, criticized the Roman Catholic Church for their abuse of power and wealth. Luther began the Protestant Reformation.

  • Protestant Reformation: a religious movement began in small German towns but quickly spread to most of Europe.

  • Protestants: reformers who pretested some of the Catholic Church’s practices.

• The Printing Press - a machine that produces printed copies using movable type - help spread the news of the Reformation.

• In the late 1500s French Catholics fought French Protestants known as Hugenots.

• In 1534, King Henry VIII founded the Church of England and became the head of the church. He challenged the authority of the pope and angered Catholics.

Spain and England Go to War

• King Phillip II began a Catholic Reformation against the Protestant Reformation. He wanted to drive out the Protestants out of England. Protestant English Queen Elizabeth I had her sea dogs raid Spanish ships. The most famous sea dog was Sir Francis Drake.

  • Sea Dogs: the name given to English sailors who raided Spanish treasure ships.

• King Phillip gathered the Spanish Armanda.

  • Spanish Armanda: a huge fleet of warships meant to end the English plans

• The English fleet defeated the Spanish Armanda which caused the Spain’s economy to struggle. Inflation rose which caused the decline of the Spanish empire.

Search for a Northwest Passage

• Europeans wanted to find a Northwest Passage: a water route through North American that would allow ships to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

• Italian sailor John Cabot made voyages to North America for England. He paid for his own expedition, in exchange, the King of England would give him royal charter for the lands that he found.

• Jacques Carter was a French sailor who led France’s next major exploration of North America.

• Dutch also entered the race and sent Henry Hudson to find a Northwest passage. He founded the Hudson Bay.

• Spanish and Portugal were the early leaders in overseas exploration.

English Presence in the New World

• Sir Walter Raleigh recieved a charter: a document giving him the permission to start a colony. Raleigh led an expedition and landed in present-day Virginia and North Carolina. Raleigh named the entire area Virginia.

• Raleigh sent another group to form a colony on Roanoke Island. The colonists at Roanoke had a hard life with relations with Indians and finding and growing food.

• John White helped resettle the colonists at Roanoke. White went back for England for more supplies, but due to the war, returned back 3 years later. When he returned, the whole colony was deserted. The only clue was the word Croatoan. To this day, no one is certain what happened to the colonists.

French Presence in the New World

• French Huguenots started a few colonies in Florida in 1564. Spanish settlers soon destroyed these settlements and drove out the French.

• French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded a small colony on the St. Lawrence River. He named the colony Quebec.

• Rene-Robert de La Salle followed the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico He claimed the Mississippi Valley for the King of France. To honor the King, La Salle named the region Louisiana.

• Because of their close trading relationships, the French treated the Native Americans with more respect that some other European settlers had done.

Dutch Presence in the New World

• Dutch claimed the land between the Delaware and Hudson rivers called it New Netherlands.

• Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island for $24. He founded New Amsterdam, which is modern-day New York City.

Section 5: Beginnings of Slavery in the Americas

The Need for a New Labor Force

• Europeans brought many diseases to Native Americans since they were not immune to them like the Europeans were.

  • Immune: natural resistance to a disease

• These diseases brought death to the Native Americans and their population dropped. With the lack of Native Americans, Europeans needed a cheap work force.

• The colonists soon agreed that slaves from West Africa could be the solution.

The Slave Trade

• Over the course of a century, more than 1 million enslaved Africans were brought to Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the New World.

• Slaves passed through the Middle Passage. They were packed together at the bottom of cargo ships.

  • Middle Passage: was the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean that enslaved Africans were forced to endure.

• Due to the slave trade, African Diaspora occurred.

  • African Diaspora: the scattering of African slaves around the world.

• Slaves were given few rights in the colonies and received harsh punishments for minor crimes.

Slave Cultures in the Americas

• Families was a vital part of slave culture. Along with that was religion was a refuge for slaves.

• Many slaves expressed themselves through art and dance. These were heavily influenced by African traditions.